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ESCANABA - Two incumbents and one new member were elected to Escanaba City Council with just under 15 percent of the city's registered voters casting ballots for Tuesday's election.

Incumbents Leo Evans and Patricia Baribeau and challenger Walter "Pete" Baker will be sworn into office during council's re-organizational meeting Monday.

They were the top three vote-getters for the three four-year terms open on council, according to election results which will be officially verified by the board of canvassers today.

Challenger Ronald Beauchamp and incumbent Tom Warstler came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

The unofficial election results were announced a few minutes before 9 p.m., nearly one hour after the polls closed. A few election officials and a couple candidates were waiting at city hall when the results were posted by City Clerk Bob Richards.

"The three were kind of close, so I wanted to make sure of the votes," Richards said after members of the election receiving board verified voter results.

While Evans received the most votes with 918, candidates Baker, Baribeau and Beauchamp each received votes in the 700 range, encouraging Richards to verify the voting machine tapes before announcing who won the election.

Baker received 759 votes, Baribeau came in with a close third with 752 votes, and Beauchamp tallied 709 votes. Warstler received 484 votes.

"It was a real low turnout," Richards added, commenting other council elections have had higher numbers voting, even when it hasn't been a presidential election year like this contest.

"This was a pretty quiet election," he said, guessing the low voter turnout may have been attributed in part to the lack of or low-key campaigning by some candidates.

A total of 14.82 percent of the city's 8,955 registered voters participated in Tuesday's election including 730 individuals who went to the voting booths and 597 people who voted by absentee ballot.

The board of canvassers will meet at 1 p.m. today to review the votes and declare the official results, Richards said.

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Jenny Lancour, (906) 786-2021, ext. 143, jlancour@dailypress.net